Cultures in Contact

In conjunction with the 2008-9 exhibition Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a series of lectures brought together major international scholars in a variety of fields concerned with the worlds of the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean in the middle and late Bronze Ages. Interconnections among these rich and complex civilizations extending from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean were developed in detail, ranging from reports of new archaeological discoveries and insightful art historical interpretations of material culture, to innovative investigations of literary, historical, and political aspects of interactions among these great powers. This symposium volume, containing twenty-six essays, is an ideal companion to the exhibition catalogue, providing compelling overviews of the ancient Near Eastern and eastern Mediterranean cultures during this period that are both broad and deep in their range.